The present invention relates generally to control of a prioritization protocol to dynamically change a priority of a device. More specifically, this invention relates to selective control of a plurality of devices organized in a logical matrix and operated under a small computer system interface ("SCSI") type protocol. SCSI is described in a publication of the American National Standard For Information Processing ("ANSI"), described in ANSI document No. X3.130-1986.
SCSI has been employed as a local I/O bus for providing a system computer, for example, with peripheral device independence for a class of devices. A variety of mass storage devices (such as disk drives, tape drives, optical drives, and memory caches), printers, microprocessors, protocol translators (such as a modem) and other devices can be added to a computer system without modification to system hardware or software. In addition, special features and functions of individual devices can be handled through use of device-independent fields and codes.
SCSI provides for a plurality of devices to share a local bus, wherein at least one of the devices is denominated an "initiator" which supervises activity on the bus. Each device obtains bus control upon successful arbitration. A SCSI type local bus is one in which the SCSI prioritization protocol is manifested when the determination of access to the local bus during arbitration is based upon a fixed ID of an arbitrating device.